Hybrid or electric vehicles which are used, in particular, as passenger motor vehicles in road traffic have electrical devices which carry a voltage which is impermissibly high for a person to touch. Said road vehicles contain rechargeable batteries or capacitors for storing large quantities of energy, wherein relatively high voltages, for example of 400 V, are distributed over cable strands, which are laid in cavities in the electrically conductive vehicle body, within the vehicle. If road vehicles of this kind are involved in an accident, the vehicle body may be deformed, with the result that rescue or salvage personnel, with the aid of rescue equipment, have to save people located within the electric vehicle which has been involved in an accident. For this purpose, the rescue or salvage personnel have rescue appliances to which rescue tools are attached, parts of the vehicle body being forced apart or cut open with the aid of said rescue tools. In the event of an accident, an electric vehicle can be severely damaged in such a way that voltage-carrying cable strands which are laid, for example, in a cavity in the vehicle body become separated and come into contact with the vehicle body. A vehicle battery can also be damaged in the event of an accident such that the vehicle body is connected to a voltage-carrying component of the battery. The mechanical devices which form part of a rescue tool, for example salvage cutters or Jaws of Life, are electrically conductive and can therefore transmit a high voltage, which is present across the vehicle body, to the housing of the rescue appliance. In the case of conventional rescue appliances, this constitutes a risk to the salvage or rescue personnel when performing their rescue work on the electric vehicle which has been involved in an accident.
DE 10 2012 201 769 A1, which is incorporated by reference herein, describes a rescue appliance for rescuing a person from an electric vehicle which has been involved in an accident, said rescue appliance having an integrated protective function for protecting salvage personnel against an electric shock. Said rescue appliance has a measuring unit for measuring an electromagnetic field on the electric vehicle which has been involved in the accident when the rescue appliance is placed on the electric vehicle, and furthermore a control unit which deactivates the rescue tool when a measured parameter of the electromagnetic field is in an impermissible region.
EP 2 760 306 A1, which is incorporated by reference herein, describes an electrically insulating salvage glove as a protection means for salvage personnel when performing their salvage work on an electric vehicle which has been involved in an accident.
In the field of trains/streetcars, therefore vehicles which are not road vehicles with steerable wheels on a vehicle axle, which have met with an accident, it is known to throw a metal cable over the overhead line, said metal cable then being fixed into the ground with stakes in order to in this way implement grounding and allow salvage work to be carried out safely.